Tnooz Nuggets – Friday 5 August 2011

This is the regular Tnooz roundup of product news from around the travel, tourism and hospitality industry, all with a technology, online and digital twist – Friday 5 August 2011.

• NileGuide’s 10Best travel guide site introduced hotel metasearch through a relationship with HotelsCombined. The offering includes user ratings and reviews from TripAdvisor. NileGuide CEO Josh Steinitz says “results will always be returned based on overall rating and quality — never based on ‘pay to play’ advertising, as on some other sites.”

• American Airlines upgraded DealFinder, a downloadable desktop tool which transmits personalized fare alerts and discounts. DealFinder 2.0 is now compatible with Mac computers and Windows and Linux operating systems. The new version also takes up less computer memory, the airline says.

• Hipmunk debuted flexible calendar search, enabling users to view fares as long as 90 days from desired departure date. The flexible calendar search can be accessed from the top of the homepage by selecting “I’m Flexible.” It works with both one-way and roundtrip fares.

• With a full-content agreement between Sabre and American Airlines set to expire Aug. 31, Sabre’s Chris Kroeger, senior vice president of marketing, emailed customers to assure them that “we remain confident that we’ll reach a new agreement with AA before the current agreement expires. It is important to note that we have been down this road before in travel supplier negotiations, and Sabre has a proven track record of negotiating for the necessary content that you need to run your business.” American Airlines also reportedly is seeking a court injunction barring any disruption in its Sabre GDS participation.

• Expedia says it is improving functionality and the platform for customers using the Travel Agent Affiliate Programme (TAAP). The upgraded service includes improved reporting tools for agents, booking and commission activity monitoring, and personalisation and branding services tools.